VZCZCXRO8597
RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYG #0056/01 2221039
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101039Z AUG 09
FM AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1352
INFO RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 0997
RUEHLN/AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG 0588
RUEHVK/AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK 0598
RUEHYG/AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG 1389

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEKATERINBURG 000056 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI RS
SUBJECT: MINORITY RELIGIONS IN THE URALS - WALK SOFTLY AND YOU WILL 
NOT BE HARASSED 
 
REF: MOSCOW 1597 
 
¶1. Sensitive But Unclassified.  Not for internet distribution. 
 
¶2. (U) Summary:  In recent weeks, consulate officers have met 
with representatives of three "minority" religions operating in 
the Urals:  Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Evangelical 
Lutherans.  Jehovah's Witnesses appear to experience the most 
difficulties in carrying out their activities, some of which do 
not comply with Russian regulations.  End Summary. 
 
Adaptable Mormons Report No Major Difficulties 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶3. (SBU) On June 23, we met with the outgoing president of the 
Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints 
(LDS) in the Urals, Steven Allen.  His district matches our 
consular district almost exactly.  For two years he has traveled 
throughout the district and has been pleasantly surprised by the 
friendliness and open-mindedness of the local population.  There 
are currently 50 missionaries in the Urals, not all U.S. 
citizens.  They are here on three-month religious visas which 
must be regularly renewed.  LDS has parishes in Perm and in Ufa. 
 They are renovating a building in Yekaterinburg to be their 
Urals headquarters. 
 
¶4. (SBU) LDS finds regulations governing real estate deals 
problematic.  LDS used to have a nice facility in Tyumen but the 
lease was not renewed and the space was taken over by Lukoil. 
Six years ago LDS obtained permission to lease space in Samara, 
completed a renovation, but was never allowed to hold meetings 
there.  More recently, they experienced difficulty securing 
space to hold a planning meeting for a group of 600.  Ten years 
ago LDS held a similar meeting here in the Urals Cultural Center 
(a city owned facility).  This year LDS signed a contract with 
the same facility and paid in advance, but was told two weeks 
before the meeting that a government facility could not host a 
religious event. 
 
¶5. (SBU) LDS promotes its faith through worship services, 
thematic religious and cultural events, and dissemination of 
printed materials, which are all published abroad, either in 
Germany or the U.S.  English language training is one of the 
Church's major activities.  The classes are limited to 
conversation, however, since use of formal teaching methods by 
people not licensed to be teachers is illegal.  Other than 
difficulties locating and keeping premises, Allen said LDS has 
not experienced any harassment by locals or government.  Allen 
told us that LDS is very careful to keep its activities within 
Russian law and regulation, and maintains good relations with 
local authorities. 
 
Jehovah's Witnesses - We'll Do It Our Way 
------------------------------------------ 
¶6. (SBU) On July 9, Sergey Tanzura, Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) 
public relations, and Yegiazar Chernikov, JW lawyer, briefed 
consulate personnel about JW activities in the region and 
obstacles faced by the group.  JW started activities in 
Yekaterinburg in 1994.  There are currently forty-two 
congregations in Sverdlovsk oblast.  Nine of them, with a total 
of about 1,000 members, are located in Yekaterinburg.  They hold 
weekly gatherings to study the Bible and religious principles 
outlined in the magazine "Storozhevaya Bashnya" (The 
Watchtower), published by JW international.  The magazine has 
been deemed "extremist" by local law enforcement officials in 
the town of Asbest, a charge that JW has appealed.  JW also 
promotes its ideas by addressing people in the street or going 
from door to door with copies of Storozhevaya Bashnya. [Note: 
Although we have not been able to find any limitations on 
door-to-door methods of promoting a religion, distribution of 
"extremist" literature is illegal. End note.] 
 
¶7. (SBU) Tanzura recounted the problems JW has experienced in 
Russia since 2002 when the federal law on extremism was adopted. 
 According to Tanzura, because the law lacks a clear definition 
of extremism, it has been used by prosecutors to investigate 
minority religions.  Tanzura told us that FSB officers 
interrupted a weekly meeting of JW on May 24 in Asbest, a 
monocity about 70 km northeast of Yekaterinburg, demanding 
identification documents from all present (see reftel).  JW 
members asked to leave but were not allowed to do so until all 
documents were checked and names were recorded by the FSB.  JW 
recognizes the right of law enforcement officials to ask for 
personal identification; they insist, however, that it is 
illegal to record names or photograph the individuals whose 
documents are checked.  The May 24 meeting was held in a 
hairdresser's shop leased by JW during off hours.  Government 
officials have told us there may be a question of whether public 
meetings can be held in a space licensed for other purposes. 
Our visitors told us that JW lawyers typically file suits 
alleging illegal detention in circumstances such as these.  They 
 
YEKATERINB 00000056  002 OF 002 
 
 
have difficulties getting courts to hear the cases, however. 
None of JW's cases has made it to the level of the Russian 
Supreme Court, but they have had some success with the European 
Court of Human Rights. 
 
¶8. (U) JW press releases and reftel mention the placement of a 
15-year-old boy in a children's rehabilitation facility as a 
result of the interruption of the Asbest meeting.  As JW, NGO 
contacts, and government officials told us, the boy's parents 
were out of town at the time and could not be reached by 
authorities.  They had not left a power of attorney or any other 
documents designating guardians in their absence.  The boy was 
kept in the facility until his parents, who were informed of 
their son's placement in the facility, returned.  The family is 
now reunited. 
 
¶9. (U) JW press releases also implied that a woman miscarried as 
a result of police actions on May 24.  We sought clarification 
from both JW and authorities.  The woman came to the militia 
station on her own volition on May 26, with about 20 other JW 
members, to complain about militia actions on May 24.  She 
provided a statement, provided her contact details, and left the 
station.  The militia called her on May 27 and asked her to give 
further details about the incident and "explain her reasons for 
participating in the gathering."  She returned home the same day 
and did not miscarry until May 31.  The JW representatives with 
whom we spoke could not link her visit to the militia station 
with the miscarriage and made no allegations of mistreatment 
such as threats or physical force. 
 
Lutherans Hoping for Restitution 
----------------------------------- 
¶10. (SBU) In a meeting at the consulate on July 13, pastor Roman 
Alfredovich Gaideman said that his 43-member congregation of 
Evangelical Lutherans (EL) has not faced harassment by 
authorities similar to the experiences of JW.  According to 
Gaideman, Lutheranism has been practiced in this region since 
the arrival of Germans working in mining and metallurgy in the 
1700s and is considered one of Russia's traditional religions, a 
"status" that he believes affords some protection.  [Note: we 
were unable to find any mention of "traditional religions" in 
the Law on Religious Freedom.  Some commentators hold that 
religions that have been present on the territory of Russia for 
over 50 years qualify as traditional.  End note.]  In addition, 
Gaideman believes that due to its small size in Yekaterinburg, 
the EL church poses no threat to the Russian Orthodox Church 
(ROC). 
 
¶11. (SBU) Gaideman, who joined the Lutheran church here in 1994, 
noted that it is very difficult to register a religious 
organization today.  Gaideman criticized the government's 
approach of maintaining that church and state are separate but 
at the same time putting pressure on businesses to pay for new 
ROC churches.  He recounted difficulties he encountered when 
attempting to get restitution for Lutheran properties seized and 
destroyed in the 1940s.  He said he would have settled simply 
for use of space in the building currently occupying the site of 
the former church, but has not been successful.  According to 
Gaideman, the official reasoning is that since the pre-1940 
building no longer exists, there is nothing to return and no 
basis for a claim.  The Lutherans do not have any of the 
original documentation related to the church, such as a property 
deed. 
 
Comment 
-------- 
¶12. (SBU) The LDS experience in the Urals demonstrates that it 
is possible to practice a minority religion without harassment 
or interference by authorities.  In contrast, our JW visitors 
convey the impression that they are trying to prove a point, 
appealing to the European Court of Human Rights to expose the 
restrictions imposed upon them by Russian regulations.  If what 
they told us face-to-face was accurate, however, their press 
releases seem exaggerated.  Though their defiant position draws 
unwanted attention from the authorities, JW leaders do not 
intend to adapt their methods of practicing their faith. 
SANDUSKY